Is Selling Gold at a San Diego Gold Party a Good Idea?

If you are thinking about throwing a San Diego gold party or selling your old gold jewelry at a gold party of one of your friends, you might want to think again. For starters, most San Diego gold parties are illegal. Over the years several individuals have been caught buying and selling gold at illegal San Diego gold parties.

For example, back in 2009 JCK reported about how two retail jewelers in Watsonville, CA, were facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly purchasing used gold jewelry without proper licensing or crime-prevention procedures. This story about illegal San Diego gold parties was covered in the Register-Pajaronian newspaper.

Both of these jewelers were ordered to appear in court to answer for their failure to comply with state and city standards, said the newspaper. One of the gold buyers acknowledged having bought jewelry for over a dozen years, unaware that in addition to a business license, state law requires jewellers/gold buyers to have a second-hand or pawn license in order to buy used goods like scrap gold and gold jewelry.

The crackdown on illegal gold parties in California began in late 2007, when police say a series of complaints prompted them to issue a warning letter to all jewelry dealers and launch an undercover investigation.

Police sent a letter to 25 merchants, advising them of the licensing law and their need to comply with it if they were buying or pawning gold items, said the newspaper. The crackdown served to educate local businesses about laws known as the California Business and Professions Code and the city’s obligation to uphold them.

Outside the fact that most San Diego gold parties are illegal, you also won’t get the most money for you scrap gold at a gold party of one of your friends. Why? Because there are too many people involved who all need to make a profit. Rather than selling your gold at a San Diego gold party, you are better off selling your gold to a buyer that is both a gold refinery and an expert jeweler.

Not all gold refineries are the same. Some of the big nationally advertised gold buyers who are gold refineries have been exposed as paying the lowest amounts for your gold jewelry, while other gold refineries aren’t really refineries at all but ship the gold they buy to out-of-state refineries. However, San Diego Jewelry Buyers is unique in that they operate a local San Diego gold refinery and are expert fine jewelers to boot. They therefore pay the high cash amounts for scrap gold as well as high-end diamond jewelry which never should be melted down.

When selling your gold to a San Diego gold refinery or other kind of local gold buyer, make sure that you research who they are and how they do business.